WebXR and Commercial Game Engines for the Metaverse: A Socio-Technical Analysis of Openness, Interoperability, and Sustainability
The Metaverse is often framed as a persistent, interoperable, and embodied network of virtual and augmented environments. Yet, most contemporary XR applications are developed through commercial game engines and distributed through proprietary app stores, creating tensions between openness and platform dependency. This paper critically examines open WebXR technologies with conventional commercial game-engine pipelines, with particular attention to XR hardware, software architectures, developer workflows, governance, ethics, interoperability, and sustainability. We argue that WebXR may provide a viable route toward a more accessible, device-independent, and institutionally sustainable Metaverse, especially for education, research, cultural heritage, prototyping, and public-interest applications. At the same time, commercial engines remain advantageous for graphically intensive, low-latency, deeply integrated, and large-scale XR products. The paper concludes that the choice should not be framed as WebXR versus engines, but as a continuum: WebXR is preferable when accessibility, interoperability, low-friction deployment, and long-term maintainability are primary goals, whereas native engines remain preferable when performance, platform-specific hardware access, and production-grade tooling dominate.